Caught in the Act
by SittingontheSideLine
Summary: Kevin’s horseplay with DiNozzo ends up getting him into deep trouble with Jenny and Gibbs. Continuation of A Minor Inconvenience.
1. Chapter 1

**Caught in the Act**

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Characters (other than Kevin) do not belong to me, no copyright infringement intended.

Summary: Kevin's horseplay with DiNozzo ends up getting him into deep trouble with Jenny and Gibbs. Continuation of _A Minor Inconvenience_.

A/N: Although this could be considered a stand alone story it will make more sense if you read my first story _A Minor Invonvenience_… that will set up who Kevin and provide background on his relationship to the Team and Gibbs.

* * *

Twank… twank… 

The small missiles hit the metal file cabinet. DiNozzo ducked behind his desk.

"Hey… what the heck was that?" He peered around the side of the desk and saw the boy duck behind the cubical separator and scramble down the other side of the squad room.

"Like that…?" Kevin said with excitement. "Picked it up yesterday. Sure beats rubber bands."

"What is that? One of those air pellet guns? That's not fair"

For weeks now DiNozzo had been ambushing Kevin when Gibbs wasn't around. First it was just with wads of paper, then spitballs, but lately he had stocked his desk with rubber bands and had hit Kevin half a dozen times with them.

But Kevin was ready for him today. Yesterday he had found the soft-air pellet gun, the kind that shoots plastic pellets, at the local department store and figured it was finally payback time. Gibbs was down in the lab with Abby, and being a Saturday, the rest of the office was pretty much empty.

Skirting around the side of the desks DiNozzo peeked around the side. "Hey, you could take an eye out with that." He moved quickly to the other side of the desks.

"Oh… and a rubber band shot at warp speed won't," Kevin said going around another set of file cabinets. He hesitated for a second then started crawling to the other side of the office.

Just then DiNozzo stood up and pulled back on the rubber band hooked on the end of a finger on his other hand. Taking quick aim he shot the rubber band at the fleeing boy hitting him sharply in the leg.

Turning quickly Kevin fired the air pellet gun twice but it was too late, Tony had already ducked and moved off back towards his desk.

Kevin stopped and looked down the hall that led towards interrogation. He decided to circle around the back side of the building, knowing that it would bring him back out on the other side of the squad room. If figured he could then sneak up behind Tony. He took off at a run and vanished around the corner of the hall.

Just then the elevator door at the other end of the hall opened and Director Shepard walked out. Hearing the ding, DiNozzo stood up and standing over McGee's desk he pretending to look through a report that was sitting there.

"Agent DiNozzo, have you seen this?" the Director said walking up to Tony and handed him a file. Being a Saturday, the Director was dressed casually in jeans and a sweatshirt.

"Um… afternoon Director," Tony said looking around but not seeing Kevin. "Is this the intel on the smuggling ring we requested from the FBI?"

"Yep, I took a quick look and I think we may have enough for a warrant. What do you think?" Tony tried one more time to look around for the boy, but the Director's gaze made him began to flip through the files.

Kevin was in stealth mode. Though he had heard the elevator ding, he was sure that DiNozzo had pressed the button to distract him, so he swiftly came out from the hall and went the opposite direction, creeping to the row of desks that were located just behind the teams. He hesitated behind one of the desk's for just a second and heard Tony rustling some papers. Peeking between a small gap in the desks he looked towards the sound. He couldn't see much… only the backside of a pair of jeans. "Gottcha," he thought to himself, took aim and let go of two quick shots.

He smiled as he heard a very loud "Yeowwww…!" as his pellets found their mark. Then the smile faded his brain registered the fact that it hadn't been Tony's voice but one more feminine… not like Ziva's or Abby's but more… more like the Director's. His heart froze in his chest as he realized someone had actually gotten off the elevator – _the Director_. He sat back against the desk in shock and considered for a moment running for his life.

"What the Hell?" came the Director's voice. He could hear Tony try and stutter something inane. "_Who did that_?" the Director's voice boomed as it began moving around the desks.

He closed his eyes and held his breath trying to meld into the desk and disappear. The footsteps came closer and rounding the side of the row of desks. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes. His eyes focused on the Director's legs in front of him. He slowing looked up. She stood there with her hands on her hips, face red with anger. Her stare froze him worse than a deer caught in headlights. Suddenly realizing he was still sitting against the desk he jump to his feet, ejected the magazine, then the small plastic pellet from the chamber of the pellet gun and took another deep breath. He opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out.

The Director's jaw was set and she simply reached out her hand. Kevin placed the toy gun in her hand, never moving his eyes from her stare. He held his breath again.

"My office, _now_." She said in a low deadly voice. He had never heard her so mad. He opened his mouth to try and say something. Her gaze bit through him like a razor. He decided against saying anything, closed his mouth and almost ran up the stairs towards her office.

As he scrambled up the stairs towards the Director's office he took a chance and glanced back down at the bullpen of desks. DiNozzo had relocated himself back at his desk but was watching Kevin's assent with eyes that relayed how sorry he was.

"Agent DiNozzo, where is Gibbs?" the Director asked pinning him with a gaze that indicated she was in no mood for any of his typical joking.

"I believe he's with Abby Director."

Without a word she turned and heading towards the elevator.

TBC...


	2. Chapter 2

Ch 2

The door opened and Kevin, who had been standing along the back wall of the office wondering if he was live to see the end of the day, turned with a start and came to attention out of fear and habit. The Director stormed into the office followed more slowly by Gibbs.

She slammed the plastic gun and magazine down on the corner of the small conference table in the center of the room. Kevin jerked involuntarily at the sharp sound. She walked up to the boy and stood face to face with him, her anger still evident in her voice as she barked out, "What do you have to say for yourself, young man!?"

He's breath became somewhat labored and he once again opened his mouth to respond, but his mouth and throat had gone bone dry. His mouth closed as he tried to bring up some spit but couldn't find any, swallowed a gulp of dry air, and managed to strangle out a soft, "I have no excuse, Ma'am."

"Damn right you don't," she growled. "This is a Federal Office not a playground. I will not tolerate that kind of behavior in here. Do you understand that?"

"Yes, Ma'am, it won't happen again."

Instead of replying to Kevin, the Director turned to Gibbs who had been standing off to one side and snaped at him, "I'm trusting you to make sure it doesn't Agent Gibbs." She held Gibbs with a stare, then turned and left her office.

As the door closed behind her Kevin let out a slight sigh of relief.

"I wouldn't be that quick to relax if I were you," Gibbs said harshly.

Kevin looked up at him and saw anger in his eyes as well. That surprised him at first because he thought Gibbs would understand a little horseplay. It had become pretty common for them to wrestled and even playfully attack each other with various things around the house. They even had a water fight the other day while doing dishes. Granted, he may have gone a little to far with DiNozzo… _and_ it was in the office, but heck, it really didn't seem that big of a deal…. was it? He started to get a little nervous.

"Do you realize the situation you've put yourself in… you've put us in?" Gibbs asked.

Kevin hesitated for a second not understanding... "uhmm... I..."

"You're little stunt has quite possibility jeopardized the agreement we've been working on to get you an internship at this office."

Although Kevin's injuries from the terrorist that had kidnapped him had been relatively minor, and he knew that he had acted in self defense, Kevin was still trying to deal with the internal struggle he was having that he had actually taken a human life. The social worker that had been assigned to him while Gibbs went through the formal process of being designated his guardian had suggested it would be better for Kevin to take some time off and not go back to the Academy until winter semester – giving him time to work things out.

To that end, both Gibbs and Jenny had been working with the personnel office to get him in a work study program or maybe some type of student internship at the office. Even though he wasn't sixteen, they were trying to pull strings to get special consideration. Jenny had even gone to see the SecNav about it.

Gibbs was concerned at the intensity of Jenny's reaction; she very rarely used that kind of language, especially around Kevin. He was concerned at how upset she really was.

Kevin looked at him with wide eyes, realizing the seriousness of his infraction and swallowed hard. Gibbs let out a sigh, shook his head slightly, then said "stay here and think about it," as he turned and left the office.

He found Jenny just outside the office leaning against the metal rail that looked down over the squad room. He went over to her and placing his elbow on the rail turned towards her.

"You ok?" he said with concern.

See glanced over at him, sighed and rubbed her backside, "that hurt like hell."

He could see the anger was finally dissipating, so with a twinkle in his eye he said, "you want me to check it out… see what kind of damage it did?"

Her mood softened significantly and she chuckled, "don't you wish."

"Seriously, how do you want me to handle it?" he asked.

She sighed and turned to look down into the bullpen, "I know he was just playing around. I suppose I probably over reacted a bit. I just haven't been around kids much. I guess you should expect the unexpected. I just didn't expect getting shot in the butt in my own office."

Gibbs leaned down, resting his arms on the metal railing and also looked down into the bullpen where DiNozzo was pretending to be hard at work. "I doubt he was the only culprit in this."

"I've been getting a few complaints about them horsing around the office you know."

"Let me guess – Haines." Gibbs was referring to Agent John Haines. There was something about that guy that Gibbs had never liked. He was a mediocre agent that thought he was better than everyone else. Gibbs considered him dangerous, he was constantly making bad decisions, not bad enough to get him fired, just enough that no one wanted to partner with him. But what irked Gibbs most was that he never took responsibility for his mistakes, he always found someone else to blame. He's lack of being a team player and was always looking out for himself at the expense of everyone and anything else was why Gibbs had turned him down when he asked to be assigned to Gibbs' team three years ago. Now, every chance Haines had, he was complaining about the team, first to Director Morrow and now apparently, to Jenny.

"Yep, that guy has the potential to be a major problem. If this had happened during the week, or if that had been Haines who got hit, he would have a real reason to get Kevin banned from the office. SecNav has taken a personal interest in Kevin's situation and told me that he was going to be keeping on eye on this arrangement, so we've got to figure out a way to put a stop to this and fast." 

Gibbs sighed and looked at her. He was still trying to figure out what an appropriate punishment would be. He knew it had to come from him rather than Jenny if they were going to keep it completely off record. And anyway, he needed to be able to deal with these types of things, pretty soon he was soon going to officially be the one responsible for Kevin. As promised Jenny had pulled some stings and the paperwork for guardianship over Kevin was moving forward.

He considered his options. He had never had to really punish Kelly, she was the kind of child that a simple harsh look was all that was ever need. Kevin was more… well, he was more like he was as a kid. He considered grounding him, but Kevin really didn't have anything to be grounded from. They didn't have a TV, except for the small black and white one in the basement, and they only used that to listen to football games or the news while they worked on the boat. And Kevin really hadn't had time to develop any friends yet, that is except with the Team, DiNozzo in particular, so he couldn't ground him from hanging out with friends. He sighed again, then turned and walked back towards the office.


	3. Chapter 3

Ch 3

Gibbs opened the door.

Kevin had sat down at the small conference table and was fiddling with the soft air gun. He quickly put it down and stood up to face Gibbs as he walked over to him.

Gibbs cleared the chair out of the way and sat down on the edge of the table putting him at eye level with Kevin. "We have a problem."

"Yes Sir?"

"The Director has made it very clear that she wants me to deal with you in such a way that this will never happen again."

Kevin gulped, "it won't Sir."

"Well, we have to make sure of that."

Kevin looked down at his feet, he was trying to think of the worst thing Gibbs could punish him with. Nothing really came to mind, maybe he would get some additional chores like cleaning up all the sawdust down in the basement – that would take a long time but it didn't sound too bad, heck, he actually enjoyed helping in the basement.

"Kevin, it's your job to be a kid and part of that is the fact that you're going to make bad decisions from time to time. That's ok, its how you learn. But it's now _my_ responsibility to make sure you learn from your mistakes by holding you accountable for them. I wouldn't be teaching you anything about responsibility if I let you off would it?"

Kevin looked up at him and thought about the question.

Gibbs waited and sensing Kevin didn't completely understand he softly asked, "Why did you choose _today_ to bring that in." He looked down at the toy pistol then back at Kevin.

Kevin thought for a second, then it dawned on him where Gibbs was going said, "because it was Saturday and I figured there wouldn't be very many people around."

"You never mentioned to me that you had bought that, _and_ you waited for me to go down to the lab before you got it out."

Kevin looked back down at his feet, his face flushed with embarrassment.

"Look at me."

Kevin looked back up.

"Why."

In a quite voice Kevin responded, "because I knew I shouldn't be bring it to the office." Kevin realized he had made a much bigger mistake than he originally thought. He didn't think simply cleaning up some sawdust would cut it.

Gibbs nodded, "so there's the problem. You knew you were doing something wrong, yet made the decision to do it. Your decision was made because you couldn't think of any consequence severe enough to keep you from doing it."

Kevin's heart caught in his throat, and in a panic he couldn't help but blurt out, "so I can't come to the office anymore? I didn't know…."

The pure anguish in Kevin's voice and eyes cut Gibbs to the core.

"If it was left up to the Director to deal with you that would be the only option. However, with everything that's happened, she and I don't think that would be in your best interest. So she has left your punishment up to me."

Kevin let out a small sigh of relief.

"I've been giving this a lot of thought. And as much as I hate the thought of it, the best way I know to make sure you really understand _and_ remember the consequences of choosing to do something you know is wrong, is the way my father taught me." Gibbs stood, unhooked his belt and withdrew it.

Kevin body went stiff and he looked at him with fear. His father had spanked him before, but it had been a while. He stuttered out, "isn't there some other way…. I promise I won't do it again…."

"You tell me Kevin. Give me another punishment appropriate for your actions, and one that will _really_ make you think twice before you do something like this in the office again?" Gibbs secretly hoped Kevin would actually come up with something so he wouldn't have to follow through.

Kevin stood there stunned, his mind raced trying to come up with something, anything,… but couldn't.

When Gibbs realized he wasn't going to be given another alternative he said, "By doing this I know I could be putting my chance of getting guardianship of you at risk. There are many people who don't agree with this type of punishment, but I think teaching you to take responsibility for your actions is more important than what they think. But, you have to make the decision to accept the fact that if we are going to be a family, this is the way I plan on dealing with this type of situation."

Kevin's stomach twisted into a tight knot. He knew he didn't want Gibbs to use his belt on him, but even worse, was the feeling that he had disappointed him. He knew he really deserved it. Reluctantly, but with acceptance he turned towards the table, bent over and placed his forehead on his arms which he had crossed and laid on the table. Knowing what was coming, he closed his eyes and clenched his teeth so he wouldn't bite his tongue like he had done once before when he was younger and had gotten into trouble.

Gibbs closed his eyes for a second preparing himself for what he was about to do. He had only once had to give Kelly a swat after she had ignored his warnings about playing to close to the street. He wasn't sure if he was actually going to be able to follow through with this.

But then he remembered the last time his father had done this to him; he was a little older than Kevin was, and on a dare had tried to steel a pack of cigarettes from the local gas station, but had been caught. He'd never stolen anything again.

He sighed as he wrapped the belt around his hand leaving about a third of it loose so it was controllable, lifted his arm up and…..

xxxxxx

Jenny stood in surprise from the rail she had been leaning against when she heard the first crack of the belt and yelp of pain from Kevin. She refused to look back at the office door, instead gripped the railing tightly and waited. After five more cracks it stopped and she realized she had been holding her breath. After another minute she heard the door open and out of the corner of her eye she saw that Gibbs had joined her once again at the railing.

"I never could understand how my father could think that it hurt him as much as it hurt me…. until now that is," he said in a soft pained voice.

She looked over at him and saw the pain reflected in his eyes. "Jethro, you didn't have to…" she hesitated because she realized he was feeling bad enough.

"What other option did I have?"

She thought for a second, then sighed. "My father used to tell me that parenting isn't for the weak at heart."

"Well I wish I could've come up with some other way," he grunted with resignation. "I even gave him a chance to come up with something else."

Jenny debated for a second then said with a slight smile, "well, at least the punishment mirrored the offence."

It worked, Jethro dropped his head giving it a slight shake and then gave her back a slight smile.

"I think it actually might have been the best option. At least this way it's over, and for me at least the pain use to help me deal with the guilt of knowing I'd done something to disappoint my father."

She looked at him with a slightly mischievous grin, "so how often _did_ you have to deal with it?"

He chuckled slightly, more to himself than to her, "more times than I hope he has to." The both stood there leaning against the railing and looking into the bullpen. DiNozzo continued to look busy at his desk.

"So what are you going to do about him," Jenny asked her eyes also on DiNozzo.

"I ought to do the same thing… but probably just chew him a new one. He had said he was just in this afternoon to wait for the DNA results Abby was running. Abby should have the results by now." He headed down the stairs.

Following alongside him, Jenny said, "FBI dropped of the file on the artifact smuggling ring this morning. I gave it to him to review to see if we had enough for a warrant."

"_DiNozzo_!"

Tony jerked up in his chair, and turned towards the pair as they rounded the corner of his desk, he didn't like the looks on their faces. "Yes Boss."

"Has Abby got the results yet?"

"Talked to her a bout 10 minutes ago, she was still working on it."

"Your take on the warrant?" the Director asked.

"If the DNA matches the suspect we'll have enough, I'll go check with Abby." In one motion he ejected himself from the chair and almost ran towards the elevator.

"_DiNozzo_!"

Tony stopped in his tracks then turned back towards the pair. "Boss?"

Gibbs hooked his finger at him, "with me, the Director will go down and check with Abby."

Tony slowly started back towards Gibbs.

Just then he saw Kevin emerged from the office. DiNozzo stopped and watched as the boy slowly made his way down the stairs still in obvious pain. Gibbs and the Director also turned their attention and watched as Kevin slowly walked over to the group. His eyes were still puffy from crying, but for the most part had composed himself.

"Director, I'm sorry I shot you," he quietly said looking down at the floor, then looked her in the eyes. "It won't happen again."

"I know it won't." She shifted her gaze to the other culprit, "Do I need to have a discussion with Agent DiNozzo about this?"

DiNozzo started to open is mouth, but before he could get a word in Kevin said, "No Ma'am. He wasn't involved, I bought the air pistol to ambush him, he didn't know anything about it." Although that was technically the truth, he knew that Tony probably shared some of the blame for starting the war to begin with, but he sure wasn't going to get him in trouble as well.

"Well your loyalty is admirable, but if I catch either one of you launching _any_ type of projectile at each another again in this office, you won't have a place in this office to come back to, understood?"

They both said, "yes Ma'am" in unison.

"You may be done with him, but I'm not. DiNozzo, with me." Gibbs headed towards the hall with the small conference room.

Kevin watched while DiNozzo sighed and followed, then realized what the Director had just said. He turned back towards her.

"You mean I have a place here now?"

She had started for the elevator, but stopped and turned to face him, "my office 8 am Monday morning, we'll go over the details." She tried to keep from smiling when she saw the boy's entire face light up and turned back entering the elevator to the lower level.

TBC

A/N II – yes I have kids about Kevin's age, and yes I have had very similar scenarios with them.


	4. Chapter 4

CH 4

A/N - special thanks to PaperHat for providing me comments on this chapter, you were VERY helpful.

Gibbs stood at the door to the conference room and as Tony passed, he closed the door.

"Look Boss, we were just having a little fun…"

"_Damn it DiNozzo!_ You know what Kevin's been through, you think he needs the stress of worrying about having to go to some foster home rather than be here with us?"

Tony's face froze with surprise and confusion, "What do you mean Boss?"

"If he had hit someone other than Jenny or if someone else had seen Kevin running around a Federal Building with that gun and complained, how do you think that would have looked to the Social Worker?"

Tony understood that Kevin wouldn't have only been the only one dealing with that stress.

"I didn't think…."

"That's just it DiNozzo – you didn't think. You acted as irresponsibly as he did. You're supposed to be the adult."

Feebly he said, "I didn't know he'd take it to that level." Tony knew that was a pretty poor excuse, but he couldn't think of anything better to say.

"Yes, and he paid for that mistake. But you should have put a stop to it as soon as he took out the air gun. It was your lack of judgment that got him into the mess he's in."

Tony couldn't look him in the eyes. He knew Gibbs was right, and he felt pretty ashamed at himself for letting the kid, as well as Gibbs, down. He looked back up and was pained to see that the anger had been replaced by disappointment in Gibbs eyes.

"Um… I could really use a head slap about now Boss." He wanted Gibbs to do something, anything other than look at him that way.

Gibbs clenched his jaw and shook his head and growled, "if I did I'd probably take your damn head off. Instead, you can spend the rest of the day thinking about your screw-up _and _the fact that because of it Kevin won't be able to sit down for about a week. You pull this crap again and you won't be able to either!"

Tony's eyes widened.

"Not to mention the fact he tried to protect you by taking the blame for it. You need to stop acting like a kid Tony."

With that Gibbs turned and stormed out of the office.

"I think I'd rather have a head slap… or twelve…" Tony mumbled miserably to the closed door.

When Tony made his way back to his desk, Gibbs was no where to be seen. He found Kevin walking around the office picking up the plastic bb's and rubber bands that littered the floor. Tony joined him and they worked in silence.

After about ten minutes Tony snagged the last rubber band lying alongside one of the file cabinets. He leaned against his desk and looked at Kevin and sighed.

Kevin looked at him questioningly.

"Well, I guess we sure blew it today." Tony said with real regret.

"No kidding…but you know what they say… if you can't do the time, don't do the crime…. I just wish I had known what the 'time' was going to be beforehand."

"You and me both, I don't think I've ever pissed Gibbs off that much."

"What he do to you?" Kevin's eyes widened with concern.

"Worst thing possible – nothing. I would have rather had him smack me or something."

"Trust me, you don't want to go there. I can barely walk."

Tony shook his head feeling even worse. "He actually spanked you? I thought he was kidding," even though he knew he had from the way Kevin had walked down the stairs and from Gibbs comment, but for some reason he needed confirmation.

"With his belt. But don't tell anyone, please…. I feel bad enough."

"Now I really feel lousy. I should have stopped you before it ever got started. He's right; I have to quite acting like such a kid."

"Heck, no offense, but then you'd be no fun to hang around." He smiled big at Tony making him feel even worse.

Tony sighed; he knew he blew it with both Kevin and Gibbs, now he needed how to figure out how to balance his desire to do right by both.

"Look, it could have turned out a lot worse. What if that had been someone other than the Director? They could file a formal complaint and really ruin things for you and Gibbs. I don't want something like that on my conscious, its bad enough knowing I could have done something to prevent it. And, I don't know about you, but I'd rather not have to face Gibbs that mad again. Or should we sit down and discuss it for a while?" He looked pointedly at a chair near them.

Kevin gazed at the chair with apprehension. "Um… well, you may have a point there. But it still wasn't your fault; I should have checked my target before firing."

Tony lifted his eyebrows and cocked his head to one side, "well, I do think you and I need to have a talk if you can't tell the difference between the Director's backside and mine."

Kevin sighed, "for an old lady she does have a mighty fine…."

"A mighty fine _what_ Mr. Hickman?" the Director said as she and Gibbs rounded the corner. They must have come up from the back elevator because neither Tony nor Kevin had heard it open.

"Na.. na… nothing Director," Kevin stammered.

"That's what I thought." She said as she passed them and headed up the stairs towards her office. Smiling smugly she allowed herself a little extra swagger as she ascended the stairs. As she turned on the upper level she saw that all three had been watching her with appreciation, two of them doing so discretely, but the one that mattered openly grinning with approval.

"I'm not that old," she whispered to herself.

A/N - I almost made this the end of the story, but I think I want to deal a little more with the tension between Gibbs and Tony - tell me what you think...


End file.
